Nightclub bouncer Jackson Reilly's world revolves around drinking, smoking dope, casual sex with bar girls, and riding his aging Norton 850 Commando motorcycle.
But his life was once a lot different. As a child he was a piano prodigy. For mysterious reasons he gave it all up when he was thirteen, and he's been at war with the rest of the world ever since.
It takes the death of his mother and a re-connection with his aging Auntie Jo, who once played piano with some of the cream of the fifties' jazz scene, to make him see that what he's really been battling against for all those years is his own destiny.
After years in the dark Jackson finally learns the meaning of 'follow your bliss', but has the lesson come too late?